British influence on Indian culture in the mirror of comparative literary translation

Abstract

Abstract Society and culture are interdependent. Religion, as an important factor of culture, offers its desired behaviour patterns. Art always follows society and is always a part of culture. One nation’s culture can potentially be influenced by another’s. In this paper, I have analysed the causes and consequences of the British influence on Indian culture, dating from the sixteenth century till India’s independence in 1947. British influence is present in India’s general culture, architecture, education system, sport, traffic, bureaucracy, fashion, infrastructure, etc. The indisputably significant British influence on the Indian lifestyle is proved by the fact that the English language is accepted as an official language in the Republic of India. Are the consequences, at large, bad or good? – It will probably always be an open issue for discussion. In her collection of stories Interpreter of Maladies (1999), Jhumpa Lahiri explores and analyses various topics related to the lives of Indian Americans. She describes and faithfully depicts their lives, both in India and outside their native country. The paper also shows her filigree-precise sense of the reality and feelings of Indians who are in the process of acculturation in other countries, as well as their personal and collective struggle with their own identity and the sense of displacement. The transparency theory, advocating free translation, is focused on the equivalency concepts both formal and dynamic, which will be analysed and illustrated in more detail in the paper.